In honor of the 212th anniversary of the founder of Chabad Chasidism’s release from a Czarist prison, the Jewish website Chabad.org unveiled a new section dedicated to the teachings that had led authorities to send him there.

Known as “the New Year of Chasidism,” the 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev – this year, it began Thursday night – marks the date that a Russian commission acquitted Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi on charges that included subverting the government in S. Petersburg and aiding the Ottoman Empire.

But in Chasidic circles, the day is also regarded as signaling a Heavenly decree that the rabbi’s teachings should be publicly disseminated. As such, each anniversary marks the start of the annual daily study cycle of the leader’s foundational work of Chasidic thought, the Tanya. For Rabbi Yanki Tauber, who oversaw the compilation of materials for the new website, the date presented an opportune time to make the Tanya more approachable.

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“Of course, Tanya has always been a part of Chabad.org,” stated Rabbi Yanki Tauber, editor of the new site. “We’ve had essays, video and audio classes up for a long time, but the aim of the new site is to provide a centralized database of all our Tanya material.”

A detailed treatise on the relationship between human beings’ earthly constraints and spiritual purposes, the Tanya explains some of the deepest concepts in Jewish mysticism in simple, easy-to-understand terms. The Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory, stressed its importance as part of one’s daily Torah study regimen.

Drawing on a collaborative project with the Kehot Publication Society and Jewish.TV – Chabad.org’s clearinghouse of live classes and multimedia offerings – the site presents a mix of audio, video and text-based content. It features the entire text of the Tanya in Hebrew and English, as well as more than 2,200 classes, essays and videos, including lessons from such sought-after scholars as Rabbis Joshua Gordon, Manis Friedman and Ben Zion Krasnianski.

Chen Harpaz, who recorded and contributed hundreds of classes and programs, was one of the driving forces behind the new site. Tauber said that the effort took more than a year to program and develop.

Gordon, who directs Chabad of Encino in Southern California, said that learning the Tanya offers students a new outlook on life.

“If I have to choose one word that would embody the goal of my lessons,” he explained, “it would be ‘clarity.’ They’re not the most scholarly lessons. There are books out there far more scholarly than what I’m teaching. My goal is simply for [my students] to walk away with a clear understanding of what each day’s portion of Tanya is about.”

The new site will also contain first offerings from Rabbi Tzvi Freeman’s Tanya in Plain English. The updated translation, while remaining faithful to the original text, makes liberal use of modern idioms.

“We took the Tanya and put it front and center,” said Tauber. “This new site really gives you a full, interactive way of exploring the Tanya.”